Milton Cheng has reinforced the commitment of the leading global law firm to join Catalyst’s mission to elevate women in leadership roles.

Baker McKenzie is a multinational law firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1949 as Baker & McKenzie, it has 77 offices in 46 countries, and over 6000 lawyers worldwide. It is one of the largest law firms in the world by headcount and revenue.

Milton is one of the Chief Executives involved in the Catalyst For Change initiative to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workforce. Catalyst’s 2020 report, Towards a More Equitable Future, found that Catalyst For Change companies are addressing challenges in the representation of marginalised groups by building a strong foundation at the manager level.

The 2020 report identifies ways global companies can collect data on ethnicity and race in their organisations, as well as highlighting the latest statistics for women’s representation in the global leadership pipeline.

Milton Cheng, Baker McKenzie Global Chair commented; “Twenty years after electing the first female Chair of any global law firm, we are proud to say that once again we are leading the way in the legal sector.

To demonstrate our commitment to being inclusive, we have set global aspirational targets of 40% women, 40% men and 20% flexible by 2025.

This target applies to Partners, senior business professionals, firm committee leadership and candidate pools for recruitment.”

This pledge follows Baker McKenzie’s earlier commitment with Catalyst in 2020. The Firm became one of 56 companies and organisations who have joined Catalyst’s Gender and Diversity KPI Alliance to support the adoption and use of a set of key performance indicators that will measure gender and diversity.